There’s been a lot of hoopla in the news about Google.org - the charitable arm of Google. It makes a lot of sense because the director is Dr. Larry Brilliant who just happened to be the 2006 TEDPrize winner. In fact, I think he was approached by both of Google’s founders after they heard his passionate speech at TED. Check it out. In his TED presentation, he talks about his campaign to eradicate Smallpox by creating a global system that detects each new disease or disaster as it emerges. A solution that can help eradicate all epidemics. Truly fascinating stuff.

The mission of Google.org is “to use the power of information and technology to address the global challenges of our age: climate change, poverty and emerging disease. In collaboration with experienced partners working in each of these fields, we will invest our resources and tap the strength of Google’s employees and global operations to advance five major initiatives.”The five initiatives are to develop renewable energy cheaper than coal, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in vehicles, predict and prevent emerging threats, inform and empower to improve public services and to fuel the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.

And if that’s not enough to change the world, they take 1% of Google’s equity and profits to address the world’s most urgent problems. They have around $2 billion to do it with $25M to start. Wait, it gets even better. Google.org is a for-profit charity which means it’s a fourth-sector company.

To stay up to date with the most recent news, check out the google.org blog. What can I say? This is really exciting!